"Senior staff from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection attended the site (yesterday) afternoon with the mayor and (myself). Discussions were held about the best methodology to move on the colony if approval is given," Mr O'Brien said.

"If approval is given, it will be by combination of the use of scare guns, other noise sources such as music, car horns or anything that makes a loud noise and bright light sources such as flood lighting."

He advised council staff would use the tactics when the bats came back to roost, usually 3am to 6am, with residents contacted and advised before work begins.

Mr Beatty was apprehensive about council's planned tactics to move on the bats.

"They can try all of that, or unfortunately they could start shooting (if they applied for a shooting permit) but the trouble is all these different measures just increase the bats' stress levels," he said.

"And the more stress they have the more likely it is if they have the virus, 1-5% of the bat population, they will secrete the virus - so it's a two-edged sword."

Mr Beatty said if none of the move-on tactics worked, the flying fox colony would no doubt be migrating anyway at the end of summer.